Two stories

This is the story behind two images.

1.st photograph

I was travelling in North Africa Morocco with some friends when we stopped for a while. It was hot and we decided to stay for a while in one of the rares shadows of the area.
I set my tripod and decided to take a photograph of this landscape. The sky was clear but I didn't want that. Everything was set - tripod camera and so forth - while I was drinking a small bottle of water.
Suddenly I saw a small cloud appearing behind the mountains.
The cloud I was needing to take this image.
I waited until the cloud came to the point I wanted and I clicked.
I knew all the time that the white cloud would make a fantastic counterpoint with the dark tree on the ground opposing forms and tones while keeping the general shape.
We were about to go. If the cloud wouldn't appear I would have never made such a beautiful image.
With the help of God himself of course, the cloud came to the point I always wanted when I spotted the area.

2.ed photograph

I had been chasing this photograph for two month now and I have done 1.867 photographs every week.
My target/goal ? To capture the regurgitation of my grand son.
Stupid perhaps with no interest but a target like any other.
My harm is hacking for holding the 70-200 for so long but it worth the effort. The photo is a success of course.
-
What do you think about how patient I was, about my luck of having the cloud passing by (thanks God) and the fantastic regurgitation at the right moment of the day.
Uff I am tired !

Re: Two stories

Hi, Antonio -

Over the past 49 years since I got my first 35mm camera, I have learned even more patience than when I had my various box cameras like Brownies and Hawkeyes where I learned for the bunnies, deer, bear, elk, etc., just to show up in the area where I was waiting for them. One of my ten best ever pictures which I took within a week of getting that 35mm camera was a matter of waiting until a puff of wind blew a particular flag so that it looked just like it had been unfurled and the President was framed by the Army dude carrying the flag on the left and the kind of downward final puff of wind that looked like it was kind of leading the President down the path he was walking on and the color guard dudes were standing beside the path. I have two pictures of him, one with the flag flying out, and the other one with the flag drooping down from its pole with him walking on the path more even with the Army dude. This second one is pretty boring! But, I was willing to take the photo because you never know when somebody something might cause him to stop, be sped up by his handlers, etc. The only thing I knew in advance was that the President was scheduled to walk down that path and somehow, I managed to get a fantastic spot above the path with nobody between me and the path. Also, he looked up precisely as I pushed the shutter button. In some sense, the flag picture was really just dumb luck.

The other thing which I've learned to substitute for patience in some instances is I call fuzzy eyes. A lot of times, especially when I'm in the desert or in a deep forest, I'm looking for something of a particular color that very much contrasts with the background. So, as I'm motating (car, bike, or walking, once in awhile in the back of a pickup truck), I close my eyes just enough that the eyelashes act as a filter for the color I'm looking for. Effectively, the background colors totally become blurred. I only see the purple or the creme or the pink or the blue, etc. And, if it's the color of the wildflower I'm looking for, I stop and take a MUCH closer look. And, it almost always works.

Even though this past spring was a miserable wildflower season for Death Valley, I was able to find the only desert five-spot that I saw in the wild, i.e., not in the tame confines of the Visitor Center's front yard, this year! It's a lavender color on its five petals with a deep burgundy spot at the base of each petal INSIDE the flower. But, it was the only lavender color anything I saw driving along the National Park's roads for about 4 hours, including some unpaved "tracks". The patience involved in fuzzy eye usually results in my finding lots of places with the same flowers which I make notes about and give to the rangers. Tourists are not very happy with having to find their own flowers even when they have a nice list of unusual flowers to look for. Sheesh!

As I mentioned, it also works well in forests, especially like the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park up in Washington where most of the background is the spruce and fir trees in the background and I'm often interested in finding trilliums, lady slippers, skunk cabbage (contrary to popular belief, these are a little difficult to find unless you're pretty much right on top of one, then you'll REALLY know), wild roses, and similar wildflowers.

Fianlly, I did fuzzy eye in Yosemite before the snow had melted one year and found a snow plant which has a single, screaming crimson flower. Even the Yosemite ranger I talked to so I could find out what it was didn't have a seriously good picture of one (he has a copy now).

In case you haven't figured it out by now, it's the time you spend and the tricks you use to do things faster that do go a long way to building patience.

The net effect of fuzzy eye is that, because what I'm usually looking for is quite unusual, my increase in patience is the patience to go to a lot of unfamiliar areas in the places I visit in the interest of being successful at finding unusual blooms.

For Moms and Dads of young kids, I'd like to add that the "posed" formal portraits of your kids are not the ones you'll hang onto. It's the ones that are like the one Antonio captured of his grandson. One of my nephews-in-law is does high school senior pictures, but lots of times I've seen pictures that fall more into the ones like Antonio's grandson in the proofsheets of his pictures! I first noticed this when I was looking at photographs of my Mom and her three sisters from the 1910s -1920s time period. They were all the standup "groups" or portraits. But, the pictures of me, my siblings and cousins growing up had many more unposed photos though we also had the "school pictures". These were quite formal in some instances and must have totally exhausted the photographer's patience every year (we only had one guy who took school pictures where I grew up).